“I regret to inform you I’ve decided to resign from your organization effective immediately. I’ve decided to move onto other opportunities.”
Various
One of the worst feelings as a school leader is getting that message when you think you’re fully hired right before the start of the school year. Oh, wait! It can get worse…with additional resignations that seem to keep coming in.
You can quickly regroup after the first resignation, but each subsequent one causes your anxiety about the situation to creep in. There’s a knot in the pit of your stomach as you start processing what that means and all the steps you need to take to successfully launch a new school year. You let yourself wallow for a moment but know you need to act fast.
Where School Leaders Falter
Those next steps are crucial, but many school leaders falter in these ways:
- They rely on their district HR office to do the hiring work. School leaders may overlook that the district HR office has goals to fill ALL vacancies, not just theirs. They will never be as focused as you are on filling your vacancies.
- They broadly share recruitment messaging out to the world. Unfortunately, social media algorithms don’t always work in your favor. Don’t leave yourself at their mercy.
- They set recruitment and hiring aside in favor of more pressing matters. With so many competing priorities, it’s impossible to focus on everything. If not careful, a vacancy can cause significant problems down the line.
Six Focus Areas To Fill Your Staff Openings
Here are the six areas you need to focus on to fill your immediate staffing needs:
Know All The Stories
Your Story, The Organization’s Story, and The School’s Story will come up again and again. It’s essential during the recruiting and hiring process because of the messaging you need to convey to others. In an ultra-competitive landscape, this could set you apart from others. When people are trying to decide between the position at your school and the position at another, they are scrutinizing every aspect of both roles. Give yourself a leg up by having your stories straight!
Be Clear On What You Are Looking For
- The first thing you need is the job description, which most organizations already have prepared ahead of time. The job description should provide prospective applicants with a clear list of what the role entails.
- Apart from the job description, it would help if you had a clear picture of the character traits, mindsets, and values you are looking for in a candidate. I’ve known school leaders who quickly regretted hiring candidates without evaluating their mindsets.
Know What You Have To Offer
Prospective candidates will immediately look for the standard items, such as salary and benefits, so those must be established well ahead of time. Assuming that your salary and benefits are competitive with the market, you need to be able to stand out. Think about EVERYTHING you have to offer.
You aren’t just looking for somebody to fill a role; you are looking for somebody who wants:
- Coaching and development
- Career pathways
- To be part of a great culture
- To make an impact
- To unleash their creativity
- To learn a new skill set, etc.
Create Your Marketing Materials
You have your stories, what you are looking for, and what you have to offer. Now it’s time to put it together into some marketing collateral you can use repeatedly. There are three types of items that you need to prepare.
- Social media graphics are easily created using templates from sites like Canva and can help your job posting stand out.
- Email templates are essential, so you can type in email addresses and hit send.
- Flyers can help make it easier for others to spread this information via their networks.
Focus on Targeted Communications
Instead of a broad messaging campaign, aim to be more targeted.
- Start by asking your staff for referrals. There are tons of statistics about how much faster and smoother the hiring process is when referrals are involved.
- Send an email (that you already created) to 5-10 people with a request for assistance to fill this vacancy. Think of your network, connections with their extensive networks, or specific networking organizations.
- Post your job opportunity on social media using the templates you already created. Focus on LinkedIn more than any other social media site.
- Work on your LinkedIn presence by engaging with other posts, creating posts, and making connections. Just 5-10 minutes a day could help expand your reach and make the right candidate more likely to see your post.
Craft a Solid Interview Process
The job hiring process isn’t done until the individual is hired and in the training process. Once you get somebody in for an interview, it’s time to seal the deal (if it’s the right person, of course).
- Don’t let your first impression be their last impression of you. Curate an excellent experience for the candidate that begins when they start receiving communications from you and extends throughout the interview process.
- Leverage systems for every part of the interview process so that you don’t have to come up with things on the fly. If it’s your first time doing something, document it and save it for next time.
- Remember the narrative you’re trying to convey and that you want to enhance with this hire. Make it easier for both parties to determine if it’s a good fit. Ignore what you are determined to be looking for at your own peril.
Adjusting To The Circumstances
“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
Mike Tyson
Receiving one or more resignations before the start of the school year can feel like a punch in the face, but it doesn’t have to ruin your plans for a successful start to a school year. Own your process and be intentional with your approach to finding suitable candidates for your open positions. Run the process right, and you can give yourself more time before you have to fill that position again.
